According to Le Parisien, the threat is serious. Dozens of former French military men either were recruited after service or deserted to join ISIS. It reports (English translation) that:

“But their arms control, knowledge of command structures and especially the fact that Daech seeks to strike the West by sending recruits to their country of origin raises obvious security issues.

“In January 2015, the newspaper “the Opinion” cited the case of a commitment for five years in the 1 st RPIMa Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), elite Parachute Regiment. After leaving the army to join one of the oil facilities protection company, he won the jihadist ranks. Daech in its propaganda, understood the value of these desertions or these conversions.

“‘Le Point‘ relates the inspiring story of a committed volunteer in 1 st regiment of hunters parachutists Pamiers (Ariege), staged in a video broadcast on the Internet in April 2014 and entitled “A day with the Mujahideen La France.’

In other words, some of France’s military troops have been radicalized.

L’Insoumis points out that this problem is not new– in 1999, 60 North African Muslim volunteers on a French navy aircraft carrier Foch organized a mutiny, kidnapping the captain. The English translation is as follows:

After two days holed up in the cafeteria of the aircraft carrier, they had to be dislodged by a commando of marines. These “beurs” reacted against a collective punishment following a rebellion occurred during a mission off the coast of Yugoslavia in which the Super Banners had carried out strikes on Kosovo by Muslim recruits regarded as a Islamic shrine.

France obviously has a problem, but it’s been there for centuries as this is not its first encounter dealing with Islamic invasion.

In fact, it was in 732 that the Duke of Francia (pre-France) Charles Martel defeated the Islamic invasion of the pre-European territories at the Battle of Tours. Martel’s forces pushed back the Umayyad Caliphate fighters and its leader, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus, was killed.